Bullard's Ideas Of Discrimination In New Orleans

“There are natural hazards, but disasters are the result of human actions that put people and property in harm’s way” (Cigler 2007: 64). Throughout history New Orleans has been continuously altered by the presence of humans through the creation of levees and canals, the introduction of artificial irrigation systems, and through human induced processes that have ultimately accelerated the process of land degradation and erosion. While a natural hazard struck New Orleans in 2005, the disaster portion resulting from Hurricane Katrina was a result of human induced interactions throughout the history of New Orleans.

Shattered dreams. Broken promises. They were hung between freedom and slavery. They struggled to find a different kind of freedom and independency where justice has yet to exist and racism wasn’t just a part of life, but what life was all about.

On August 26th, 2017, Hurricane Harvey crashed into Texas and devastated Houston and the surrounding area. Harvey battered cities along the Gulf of Mexico, hitting primarily low income communities, and leaving 52 inches of rainfall, destroying about 22,000 homes, and displacing thousands in its wake. The image discussed in this essay depicts a Red Cross relief center in Houston providing shelter for residents unable to evacuate. The aforementioned image is of a domestic event, but the people, objects, and context demonstrate the complex social processes of globalization. Details in this image of Hurricane Harvey illustrate the harmful effect of the globalizing market in leading developed nations to be more focused on short term economic gain rather than long term environmental protection.

It is not surprising that much of the world has been shocked by the destruction in New Orleans and the ongoing failures exposed at almost every level of government. While it is almost impossible not to be appalled by this series of events, veterans of the environmental-justice movement are not surprised by what happened. In fact, they say that this disaster has confirmed what they have thought all along. They believed that blacks in New Orleans were much more vulnerable and less protected by environmental problems than white folks in areas close to the city. They maintain that the people in power – who included Mayor Ray Nagin, an African-American himself – viewed the city's poor, black residents as expendable. Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, has been leading a research project of official responses to environmental disasters. He believes that "blacks and other people of color are all too often overlooked in such crises," he told Liza

Hurricane Katrina struck the city of New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29th, 2005. The events that followed would leave the whole nation in shock until this day. One of the major topics of discussion after this disaster was whether or not the government's slow reaction time had anything to do with the fact that New Orleans is sixty-seven percent African American. As helicopters circled a wasteland that was once a major tourist attraction, the racism of the Deep South, thought to be extinct, proved it was only dormant. The same racism against African Americans that could be seen on Bourbon Street in the months prior to the hurricane reared its ugly head once more in Gretna, LA and was pointed out on live television by rapper Kanye West.

The calamitous natural phenomenon known as Hurricane Katrina brought terrible side-effects to lower-class African Americans. A catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina changed the lives of the lower-class African Americans forever because of the devastation from several effects. People today are more prepared for a natural disaster because “Hurricane Katrina was one of the strongest storms to hit the United States coast within the last 100 years” in New Orleans (Brianna Frank). Most of these ramifications of Hurricane Katrina came from the phycological, economic and medical effects due to this natural disaster,

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in late August of 2005, it not only destroyed the city, but unraveled the ties that held the society together. Tens of thousands of people were forced out of their homes, bound to find a means of survival on their own. Relationships they had previously formed, social constants they had grown accustomed to were thrown out of the window, and laws became irrelevant. Within a matter of days, everything they had known was destroyed, and it became the survival of the fittest and the wealthiest. While this broken society brought out the inner hero in some people, it brought out the chaos and lawlessness in others. Some embraced selflessness and saved hundreds of people, while others turned to looting, shooting,

I clearly remember the disaster Hurricane Katrina brought to the Gulf of Mexico in 2005. Several states, counties, and citizens were affected by the storm, specifically the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. I remember seeing up washed caskets floating through the city and residents sitting on their roofs waiting to be rescued. Worst of all, I clearly remember the thousands of homes that were destroyed, practically leaving the entire city homeless. As a young, prospective scientist when this disaster occurred, I remembered learning that hurricanes were referred to as natural disasters and could not be controlled nor prevented. It wasn’t until a college class studying environmental policy did I gain knowledge that the disaster at New Orleans was

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to hit the United States in decades. The economic losses were extraordinary; however, it was the human losses that stuck Americans at their core. The media brought into our homes graphic images of the destruction of New Orleans. Its mayor had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city and yet 150,000 citizens are said to have stayed. Like most of the nation I asked myself, “Well why did they stay? If a mandatory evacuation is issued, it stands to reason that state officials considered the situation to be precarious.” It is only recently, when I’ve seen reports of New Orleans slow rebuilding, that I have really given thought to the undisclosed factors that lead to such

Some of the specific environmental inequalities that happened after the storm was through the disposal of disaster debris in inappropriate locations with improper remediation and indiscriminate mixing of hazardous and nonhazardous waste. An example of this would be when the EPA and Federal Emergency Management Agency were reluctant to act and clean up the debris after the storm because state officials were worried about opening neighborhoods so that residents could return and return to stimulating the economy of that area in New Orleans. Government agents in some under privileged, urban and lower and middle class neighborhood were simply hoping the rain and the material would simply wash away but as it has rained it created lots of very toxic sludge. Even though the toxic sludge contaminated many residential homes, they were still allowed to inspect the damage of the storm and if able, clean up debris and search for their remaining belongings and the local, state, and federal officials never recommend any precautions under these serious

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005. A once vibrant and cultural community was decimated by harsh winds and extreme flooding. The rescue efforts sent to Louisiana were substantial, consisting of now only FEMA but also donated services from other countries as well. Even so thousands of people were displaced from their homes. There are people who refused to leave even after their homes were flooded and their mementos lost to the dirty polluted water. Ten years after the fact the city is still under construction. There are varying degrees of repair from street to street, the tourist area was one of the first few areas to be repaired, and the neighboring residential areas seem to have become of secondary importance. People were forced into homelessness because they could not afford to repair the house they had worked to attain before the hurricane toppled their economy. Still to this day the homeless line the streets, which should seem scary and dangerous, but it does not feel that way. It has become obvious that people need to learn to look beyond their own beliefs to better understand the world as a whole because not everything is how it seems.

After reading a portion of Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith by Vincanne Adams, it is difficult to wrap my head around the horrible effects of Hurricane Katrina. At the time of Katrina, I was about 8 years old. I remember seeing the news and hearing people talk about it, and I thought it was frightening. However, I do not think that it registered properly in my mind. Even as I got older, and there was still mention of it, I never fully understood what really happened until I read this book. It is very easy to throw something off to the side and think “Oh, it’s not that bad” because the media only shows people getting help and they tell us that conditions are improving. No one spoke of the tragedies and lasting effects written by Adams. In this essay, I would like to discuss the issues presented throughout chapters four and five surrounding the environment, the people, and the government in New Orleans.

In chapter four, it mentions about how in August 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and how Hurricane Katrina was one of the most deadliest natural disasters as well as one of the most destructive natural disasters. The author also mentions that this storm was catastrophic and within hours of the storm, “New Orleans was eighty percent under water and in certain places the water was almost twenty feet deep” (74). The author also discusses how many of the residents were left homeless with nothing, no food nor water because of the destructive damages that was done by Hurricane Katrina; not only that but the author talks about how many residents lost their lives during this catastrophic storm. The author mentions how after the storm it was

 Although some view the Katrina disaster as event which occurred because of many natural

As stated in the thesis, environmental injustice mostly affects minority communities. In a map presented by the Los Angeles Times, in Southeast LA there are 26 communities- which 83.9% of the inhabitants are of minority groups (Southeast, n.d.). Similarly, another map released by EPA from the 1990 U.S. Census illustrates that in places where there is 80 to 100% of people of color there is at least 2